That’s why his apparent failure to fully pursue a claim by someone who witnessed his assistant defensive coach, Jerry Sandusky, molesting a child, is such a huge deal.

He obeyed the letter of the law by doing his “duty”; he reported it to campus administration, but continued to allow Jerry Sandusky access to young men and little boys from that point in 2002.

I wonder too about whether this eyewitness, now an assistant football coach at Penn State, stepped in to try to stop the molestation.

We don’t know if Joe spoke about this further to Jerry, or whether he tried to keep “tabs” on him.

I wonder if he isn’t like many men of his era: a good man, a”man’s man”, who avoids these types of “ugly” confrontations for whatever reasons tied to their past: Hoping things will change, loyalty, embarrassment.

Whatever the reason, Joe Paterno made the worst call of his life in allowing Jerry Sandusky, a predator of vulnerable young boys, access to them.

Joe had power at Penn State, and failed to use it to protect the powerless.